David Anderson:  

Life Most may know I swam all through HS and a little in college. I won only a few races but still scored big points during the tough meets and helped FHS win the state title 1986 - 1989. My biggest accomplishments are probably the records that I made for the club in the 1650yd free, 800M free (it fell shortly after June 2003), and 1500M free (which won a bronze medal in the 1989 Empire State Games and lasted until 2002). When it came time to attend college, I chose Old Dominion University for its reputation in oceanography and marine sciences. I swam for 2 seasons but I had to leave due to conflicting schedules with class and work. To keep myself busy, I got joined the Student Senate and the Biological Honors Society, becoming president of the latter for my last three semesters. I got a BS in Biology in 1993. Then I took a job at the Virginia Marine Science Museum as an instructor. Part of my job was to operate the Mobile Marine Lab, which won an award for Environmental Excellence. A friend convinced me that teaching was a good job and that I was a good teacher. So I decided to get my teaching license and returned to ODU for a year to do so. Shortly after finishing the program, I was hired by New Hanover High School (near downtown Wilmington, NC) in August 1995. There were some bad times that year but I enjoyed teaching on a whole and working w/ the other staff. Unfortunately, the school cut two of its science teacher spots and I had to move on. The next year I went to teach at a rural high school about 40 miles west of Wilmington. The cons of both teaching jobs outweighed the pros of teaching, so in the spring, I turned in my resignation and I never looked back. To this day, I refuse to teach in the public school system. Deciding it was time to again try grad school, I took some grad classes at UNC-Wilmington while working a couple of part time jobs during the 1997-1998 year. For some reason, the school only took about 10-15 new grad students each year (while >1000 aplied) and I didn't make the cut. Then, in the summer of 1998 I got in touch with another FHS grad that moved out west to Seattle. She and her husband convinced me to try the west coast. When I returned from vacation, I gave my 2-weeks notice and packed up my stuff for a cross-country move. They had me help in their wedding photography business until I could get my own business running (Anderson Cleaning Company) which showed a healthy profit during my ownership. Eventually, I took a full-time day job at Western Wireless while I continued to run the cleaning company. A series of events in summer of 2001 allowed me to fullfill a life-long dream of traveling around the country. I put my stuff into storage, mapped out an itinerary and set out in October. For the next 8 months I drove 35,000 miles and visited 44 states. During the trip I was able to visit several old friends and all of my close relatives (which are scattered over 13 states and each time zone). When the fun was over, I decided to move to Northern Virginia to get work and be closer to family. I started work as a...Expand for more